


Beats the Alternative

by Flora (florahart)



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-10
Updated: 2011-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-14 15:21:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/150679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/florahart/pseuds/Flora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This could read as F/F, hence the tag, but this little snippet is more gen than not.  It's set, somewhat fuzzily, post-series, with the assumption the two of them have known each other for quite some time.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Beats the Alternative

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cosmic_llin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/gifts).



> This could read as F/F, hence the tag, but this little snippet is more gen than not. It's set, somewhat fuzzily, post-series, with the assumption the two of them have known each other for quite some time.

Kate leaned back in the tall chair and tried to find a comfortable position. "Was this chair designed for Klingons?" She winced and shifted again, closing her eyes for a moment. "Maybe one of those great Nausicaans. They'd probably go for this. Seems right in line with other sensibilities of either."

Guinan chuckled and pushed a narrow glass across the table in her living area. "Here. This'll take your mind off your troubles."

Kate shook her head. "I don't think so. My troubles aren't housed in my mind." She picked up the glass and squinted through the pink-gold liquid inside. "What's in this?" She took a sip before Guinan could answer. "Whiskey, obviously."

"Whiskey. Juice. Shot of a little something all my own." Guinan tilted her head slightly as she waited for an opinion, which, given the particular angle of today's hat, led to the unsettling impression that this was her ordinary position.

Kate squinted at the drink again, then sighed and knocked it back. "I guess after all this time, you probably wouldn't kill me."

"Not on purpose, anyway." Guinan offered the quirk of the lips that often served as all the smile she'd give, and reached to take back the little glass. "Want another?"

"Since when do you tend bar in your own damn quarters?"

"I don't. This is me offering a drink to a friend that was coming by for a visit."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to be such lousy company."

"I've never noticed that you strive for courtesy over honesty. I like that about you." Guinan held the glass up and lifted her eyebrows.

"Probably a bad idea," Kate said. "Though it _was_ tasty."

Guinan just nodded, as though that was the answer she'd expected, and got up for a moment, going to the dispenser and ordering up a different glass, a goblet this time. She came back, sat down, and pushed it across the table instead. "Then, would you liked to tell me what's bothering you?"

Kate picked up the goblet and sniffed. Water. "At the moment, my aching back. And back _side_. And don't start; obviously I could prescribe myself an analgesic, but that's not the point."

"What _is_ the point?"

"Oh, I don't know. I suppose it's mostly that aging is annoying. I knew that, of course; there was that time, with the children and this isn't my first time at the dance. Still, that doesn't mean I can't look back ten years and know that recertification didn't take this much out of me, the last time."

"Ah, yes. I remember, you had said there was a physical element."

"It's ridiculous. I'm never going to defend Sickbay on any station, ship, or planet, with hand-to-hand combat and a sharp knife, am I?"

"Stranger things have been known to happen."

"Well, not to me. For one thing, if someone tries anything, I'll probably just shoot them. Much less taxing, and much more reliable."

"So I hear."

"Well, honestly. I'm a hell of a marksman, and if a situation gets to the point at which brawling is the best solution, I'm probably better off just falling back on intelligence and usefulness while I wait for the cavalry to get a move on."

"But that doesn't always work," Guinan said. "Sometimes the cavalry is unavoidably delayed."

Kate rolled her eyes. "I _know_ that. I don't want logic; I want soothing agreement."

"Of course. I see how that would be desirable. ...Do you feel soothed now?" The quirking smile was back, but Guinan's eyes were bright. She was laughing.

Kate snorted and held up her glass. "You're a smartass. How is it no one else seems to be aware you're a smartass? Jean-Luc thinks you're some sort of mystic infallible wise-woman, and you just tend bar and listen to everyone's problems and everyone else goes along with that interpretation." She swallowed some water and shifted again, then regretted it. Sitting down had hurt, but she'd acclimated at least a little. Moving hurt all over again.

"Age does beget wisdom," Guinan pointed out.

"Then I suppose that's at least one advantage."

"One of several."

"Oh yeah?" Kate snorted. "Name another."

"Abundant opportunities to practice listening to people's problems even when one of their complaints is that I listen to people's problems." Guinan folded her hands. "And to practice being a smartass."

"Touche." Kate sighed. "Beats the alternative, I know. Growing older, I mean, not being a smartass."

"Oh, I don't know; I find that to be better than many alternatives, as well. Which doesn't mean I'm not genuinely offering my advice," Guinan said. "Go take your analgesic. You might remember I give a mean back rub, and before you say no, I just want to say it's an old-fashioned cure for--how do you say it? A cure for what ails you. I know how you like to avoid the new-fangled."

"Now you're just giving me a hard time."

"Never. It might be a secondary motive, but the offer, as with the advice, is genuine."

"It _would_ probably feel good," Kate had to agree. "And it's not that often that I get to lie around being putty in anyone's hands these days. Busy, busy. I'd likely fall asleep, though."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Guinan shrugged. "Hardly anything is, for me."

"So, to repay your kindness--oh, yes, yes, I'll get up and get something for my throbbing tailbone in a minute. To repay you, I should try and find something new to show you?"

"Next time you're in the area," Guinan said. She produced a small packet, opening her hand flat to show it. "Will aspirin do?"

Kate took the packet and shook out two round pills that looked as though they might very well have been manufactured centuries earlier, their surfaces chalky and chipped. "Tell me, do you just keep odd things like this around for everyone? Or am I somehow special?"

"Both. Neither. I keep what I expect will be useful." Guinan nodded toward the goblet sweating on the table. "Take your two aspirin, and--"

"Call you in the morning?"

"And I'll see what I can do. But you can call me in the morning, if you like."

Kate swallowed the two pills, well aware that the fact she immediately felt better couldn't possibly be an actual medicinal effect when it had to go by way of the stomach, then pursed her lips. "Guinan, are you hitting on me?"

Guinan laughed. "I wouldn't call it that. But I also wouldn't say I wasn't."

"So I should take it as I will."

"Always a good way to take things."

Kate nodded. "Then I'll accept the back rub, and we'll see what happens."

Guinan stood and opened an arm, her flowing robe billowing to the wrist. "Then, right this way."


End file.
